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The Bourne Trilogy (Nesline)
Introduction The world of literature has changed dramatically with the development of new technology to better tell stories and connect the audience with the author. Storytelling has transitioned first from being a purely oral tradition, then to reading the written word, and now has evolved to use new inventions like the internet to spread that word on a new level of communication. This transition has not always been welcomed, for example Plato said “no written discourse, whether in meter or in prose, deserves to be treated very seriously, but that the best of them really serve only to remind us of what we know” through the words of Socrates in his work PhaedrusPlato, "Phaedrus." Course Readings, ENGL295., and now the Electronic Literature Organization is resisting the transition of literature to a more digital formatElectronic Literature Organization. Reading at Risk Report, Course Readings, ENGL 295. Both think that the new medium of communication in their time is making humanity less intelligent and less outgoing. Plato claims that writing diminishes our memory by remembering things for us and stopping us from thinking for ourselves. The ELO states that new electronic media distract us from traditional literature, and their data shows that non-literary readers participate less in social and cultural events, like going to an art museum or performing charity work. These don’t paint a particularly glowing picture of each new media, but reading and writing has turned out to be a revolutionary technology that furthered humanity’s advancement by leaps and bounds despite Plato’s warnings. The ELO’s caution about electronic media could turn out to be right, but there is just as good a chance that they will turn out like Plato in this case, and electronic literature and texts will be a boon for humans in the future. The evolution of literature has persevered despite opposition by some, and this has led to an unprecedented level of dissemination of knowledge and reader interaction. Authors like Douglas Rushkoff have been able to distribute their works to more people by posting the entire text onlineRushkoff, Douglas. "A Computer Ate My Book." Course Readings, ENGL295. They can also interact directly with their readers by using blogs on the internet. Rushkoff says he doesn’t make any money off the blog, but he does “get to converse with [his] readers in the comments section, find out when [he’s] saying something that provokes them, and use [his] writing to establish relationships with people who may not be able to afford the time or money to read [his] books”. Modern authors are able to speak to their readers directly in a way that would have been impossible even just fifty years ago, and readers can access literature more easily than ever before. This has led to more reader interaction with literature as well. Remediation has become more and more common as more readers discover literature that they love. One of the most popular types of remediation being fan fiction where readers write their own stories based off the characters of other literature. Digital technology has increased both the creation and spread of new literature, and this is just the start of how the internet and digital culture will change the way society absorbs its stories. The internet’s explosion in popularity has given older stories like the Bourne series of novels another shot at fame by giving fans new ways to show their love and form communities around those stories. Even though the original novels were written by Robert Ludlum back in the 80’s, they still have a strong cultural presence, and a new movies are still being made about the series due to the still vibrant fan base. This project will first look at the remediation of the original books into the movies produced by Universal Pictures starting in 2000, and the vast differences between the two stories. Next, the interpretative disputes about whether the Bourne novels written by Eric Van Lustbader after Robert Ludlum’s death are a legitimate follow-up to the first ones will be analyzed. And finally the knowledge communities that center around trying to figure out how to be like the character of Jason Bourne will be examined. These communities formed around the Bourne series use the internet and the innovative methods of interactions it provides to thrive, and also enhance the text itself. Remediation - Novels vs. Movies The original Jason Bourne trilogy by Robert Ludlum was a hugely popular franchise, popular enough to get picked up and turned into a movie franchise by Universal Pictures, with the first movie coming out in 2002"The Bourne Identity." imdb. Web. August 13th, 2012.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/. The movies are a different take on the remediation of the plot line from the original Bourne books. Generally, the remediation of a text tries to keep the main storyline and copy the important story beats while only changing minor details, or the presentation of a scene. The three movies starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne took the same names as the book series, ''The Bourne Identity'', ''The Bourne Supremacy'', and ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', but only loosely follow the same plotline. Large portions of the plot are actually completely different between the two versions of Bourne’s journey. The novel’s story follows amnesiac Jason Bourne as he tries to kill an infamous assassin named Carlos the Jackal, while simultaneously being pursued by agents of the US government agency called Treadstone. In the remediated version presented in the movies, Jason Bourne still wakes up with amnesia, but he is instead only pursued by Treadstone, several key characters die that survive throughout the books, and only the story in the ''The Bourne Identity'' is actually toldThe Bourne Identity. Dir. Doug Liman. Perf. Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper. Universal Pictures, 2002. Film.The Bourne Supremacy. Dir. Paul Greengrass. Perf. Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen. Universal Pictures, 2004. Film.The Bourne Ultimatum. Dir. Paul Greengrass. Perf. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles. Universal Pictures, 2007. Film.. Alexander Conklin still leads the Treadstone outfit that is determined to kill Bourne because they think he has betrayed them. The main love interest, Marie, isn’t quite the same character as she is in the books, and is even killed in the movie version of ''The Bourne Supremacy''. The plots of ''Supremacy'' and ''Ultimatum'' aren’t actually even touched upon. All these changes add up to an interesting use of creative license with the original storyline. It would have been extremely difficult to fit the entirety of the three books into just three movies, even if they were both longer than average, but to completely skip the main villain and two books seems bit too much for the movies to take the exact same names. That said, the movies are all fantastic movies and do use the premise extremely well. All three received favorable scores on Rotten Tomatoes“The Bourne Identity Reviews.” Rotten Tomatoes. Web. August 10th, 2012. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bourne_identity/“The Bourne Supremacy Reviews.” Rotten Tomatoes. Web. August 10th, 2012. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bourne_supremacy/(“The Bourne Ultimatum Reviews.” Rotten Tomatoes. Web. August 10th, 2012. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bourne_ultimatum/, and were generally well received, so the fact that they deviated from the original story didn’t seem to actually make a qualitative difference between the novels and the movies. The quality of the movies is probably what has stopped them from taking too much flak for their vast differences from the books, like many other book-to-film adaptations that take too many liberties with their stories. Most people who haven’t read the books don’t even know that there were as many changes in the movies because there was no public outcry against the movies. The plot details both large and small have changed, but what has survived the remediation of the Bourne novels is the character of Jason Bourne himself and the spirit of the story. What fans care about the most is simply Bourne himself, and what every successful remediation makes sure to preserve is the core of the story that the readers truly care about. The feel of the narrative stays the same, so the movies are almost more of a very good homage to the books than a perfect adaptation. Still the Bourne movies do a good job as a remediation of the original Bourne trilogy of novels. Authorial Intentions - The Posthumous Novels Robert Ludlum’s ''The Bourne Identity'' was first published back in 1980 and was initially planned to be the first book in a trilogy, but it has now become book one of a series that has changed authors and has its tenth book coming out in 2012. The original Bourne Trilogy was intended to be finished with ''The Bourne Ultimatum'' that Ludlum put out in 1990, and the main storyline was in fact resolved. Ludlum wrote several other books between releasing ''Ultimatum'' and his death in 2001, with no plans to make a fourth Bourne book. In 2004, several years after his death, a friend of Ludlum’s named Eric Van Lustbader attained the blessing of Ludlum’s estate to continue writing novels in the Bourne series, inspired by the success of the movie version of ''The Bourne Identity'' starring Matt Damon that came out in 2002Sandomir, Richmond. "The Ludlum Conundrum: A Dead Novelist Provides New Thrills." The New York Times. July 30th, 2007. Web. August 15th, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30ludlum.html?pagewanted=all. The Bourne books that Lustbader wrote, starting with ''The Bourne Legacy'' in 2004, are generally considered to be good novels, but there remains a question if Ludlum would have ever actually written more sequels himself. Lustbader openly admits that Ludlum "never intended Bourne to be a series" , which makes one wonder if Ludlum himself would have consented to further books in a Bourne series if he was still alive. The author originally intended for Jason Bourne to simply be motivated on his dangerous adventures by keeping his family safe from Carlos the Jackal and love for his wife Marie, he was not supposed to be some repeatedly heroic super-spy in the same vein as James Bond. That is exactly what Lustbader turned him into though, he “refreshed Bourne by killing off characters who were central to Mr. Ludlum’s creation and made him ageless" to justify the many books that continue with the same character even though he should be finished. While this did make for interesting reading, Lustbader's decision to take Bourne out of his environment that Ludlum so firmly put him in killed part of what made Bourne such a fascinating and relatable character. While almost nobody who read the books has experienced anything remotley similar to what Jason Bourne did, almost everybody can relate to the pain he feels being so far away from his family and being so unsure of their safety. By stripping away his family, Lustbader has made Bourne into just another incredible secret agent who never seems to change; he just goes on mission after mission. Again, these can still be good reads, as evidenced by ''The Bourne Legacy'' selling 272,000 copies by midway through 2007, but it changes the dynamic of Jason Bourne and removes some of the magic aruond the character that Ludlum intended to leave behind as he moved on in his writing. The writing of novels after the death of the original author, especially sequels to popular books, can be a touchy subject, and the intentions of the original author are not always held up. Lustbader makes an effort "to preserve the essence of Bourne and his sense of honor," and he certainly did make sure to honor Ludlum's memory by writing another thrilling Bourne book, but he misunderstood a crucial aspect of Ludlum's intentions in Bourne's story by continuing it past the original trilogy. Knowledge Communities - Being Jason Bourne Spies and secret agents have long been a dream job for young people, with James Bond being the most popular by far. Jason Bourne is the quintessential secret agent, with all the combat and deception skills one would imagine would come with it, and communities have sprung up where people try to model themselves after him. Bourne is similar to James Bond, but his stories are more fast-paced, visceral and mature, leading to a fan base that is on average a little older than the fan of a run-of-the-mill whimsical spy movie aficionado, and also a little more tech-savvy as a result. The character of Jason Bourne has a mystique about him that has prompted the formation of knowledge communities on the internet that focus on helping people acquire the skills of Bourne and be as much like him as possible. Some websites have a narrow field of specialty, like the site howtofightlikejasonbourne.comHow to Fight Like Jason Bourne. Web. August 9th, 2012. http://howtofightlikejasonbourne.com/, while others cover pretty much all the aspects of his character’s special traits, like beingjasonbourne.com Being Jason Bourne. Web. August 9th, 2012. http://beingjasonbourne.com/?page_id=1049/. Being Jason Bourne has forums for users to discuss different aspects of Bourne’s abilities, with sections ranging from being about his mentality to how to physically have a body like Jason Bourne. It also has a “Bourne A-Z” where all kinds of information on everything relating to the Bourne series of novels. Some knowledge communities have a more narrow focus though. While Jason Bourne focuses on his ability to deceive others and only use violence when needed, his fighting skills are spectacular enough when he does use them that communities have formed to try and figure them out. The users of the website How to Fight Like Jason Bourne has figured out the exact fighting style Bourne uses in the movies, the Inosanto Lacoste style of Kali. The biggest fight scenes from each the movies are broken down and dissected for its users to help them learn to fight better. The writers don’t just praise the movie either, partway through a section on the fight scene between Bourne and a man named Castel, the author writes “now although the fight from here seems VERY professional, I have a few issues with it. Which the moves Bourne uses are meant deflect the energy of the opponent and catch the arm which holds the knife, the way in which he does it is FAR too risky”. The site even recommends where to learn the style of Kali that Bourne uses in the movies, a place called the Andersons Martial Arts Academy where the choreographer of the Bourne movies, Jeff Imada, learned the style himself. Readers of the Bourne novels and watchers of the movies have become obsessed with the character himself, and knowledge communities serve as a primary way for people to learn about the subject. The collection of information is a great way for people to both help others learn, and be educated themselves. Additional Links [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ludlum Robert Ludlum's Wikipedia Page] [http://bourne.wikia.com/wiki/The_Bourne_Directory The Bourne Directory] [http://howtofightlikejasonbourne.com/ How to Fight Like Jason Bourne] References